Poet, calligrapher, and Chan (Zen) Buddhist adept, Huang Tingjian believed that calligraphy should be spontaneous and self-expressive—“a picture of the mind.” Containing nearly twelve hundred characters, this handscroll is a master­piece of cursive-script writing. It transcribes an account of a rivalry between two officials: Lian Po, a distinguished general; and Lin Xiangru, a skilled strategist. Huang’s transcription ends abruptly with Lin’s words: “When two tigers fight, one must perish. I behave as I do because I put our country’s fate before private feuds.” Read in the context of Song political infighting, Huang’s transcription becomes a powerful indictment of the partisanship that led to his own banishment in 1094.

Biographies of Lian Po and Lin Xiangru, written in large cursive script by Huang Luzhi [Huang Tingjian] of the Song dynasty and treasured by Xiang Yuanbian of the Ming dynasty. It is worth one hundred [pieces of] gold. [Seals]: Zijing, Molin Shanren

On the Double Ninth Festival of the bingshen year [October 12, 1956] while residing in Tokyo, I took my calligraphies and paintings out of their cases in order to air them out. Regretfully I recalled that five years ago someone took from me [another calligraphy by Huang Tingjian,] the handscroll Shrine to the Queller of the Waves. When can [these two scrolls] ever come together again? Yuan [Seals]: Zhang Yuan zhi yinxin, Sanqian Daqian